1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a medicine dispenser especially designed to allow a person with visual impairments to safely dispense one or more medicine doses from a plurality of medicine doses.
2. Description of the Related Art
When people who have an acute visual handicap take medicine, they must normally rely on another person as an assistant to insure that they take the proper medicine in the proper dose and at the proper time. At best, such reliance is an annoyance to both the person with visual impairments and the assistant, especially when medicine must be taken late at night and/or early in the morning, etc. At worst, such reliance can be dangerous and life threatening if, for example, the assistant is unavailable and the person with visual impairments takes the wrong medicine.
A preliminary patentability search in class 221, subclasses 2 and 3, and class 206, subclasses 536, 538 and 828 produced the following patents which may be relevant to the present invention: Farinola, U.S. Pat. No. 3,176,815, issued Apr. 6, 1965; Shoher et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,224,544, issued Dec. 21, 1965; Christensen, U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,356, issued Dec. 21, 1976; Carlson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,223,801, issued Sep. 23, 1980; Hicks et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,384, issued Jun. 23, 1981; Behl, U.S. Pat. No. 4,473,884, issued Sep. 25, 1984; Schollmeyer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,153, issued Mar. 12, 1985; McLaughlin, U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,042, issued Jan. 5, 1988; and Cole et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,731,765, issued Mar. 15, 1988.
Farinola and Shoher et at. disclose coin operated vending machines that provide audible messages each time coins are inserted into the machines to urge the sale of a particular brand of merchandise prior to the selection of one of the different items vended by the machines.
Christensen discloses an electronic apparatus for selectively dispensing articles at a predetermined time, such as pills in hospitals and nursing homes where stringent controls are needed to prevent mistakes in dispensing or misuse of prescribed pills.
Carlson discloses an automatic medication dispenser for providing an orderly storage of a plurality of drugs to be taken in a given time period, and for providing a signal to indicate when a specific drug is to be taken at a predetermined time interval relative to previously administered drugs.
Hicks et al. discloses a portable medicine cabinet with a timer for private use by an individual taking several different medicines and which may be carried from the home to the office or the like so as to assure that an individual does not either forget to take doses of prescribed medicines, or take doses of the prescribed medicine too often so as to endanger his health. The Hicks et al. medicine cabinet has a plurality of freely accessible compartments therein and time computer means into which a plurality of predetermined time intervals for taking a dose of the respective medicines may be entered. An indicator means is electrically connected to the time computer means and indicates the predetermined time intervals and which of the medicines should be removed from its respective compartment.
Behl discloses a portable medication dispensing system comprising a dispenser having a plurality of compartments for containing doses of medicine; audible and visual indicating means on the dispenser corresponding to the compartments; programmer means associated with the dispenser for utilizing input data pertaining to a patient's medication prescription and personal habits to develop a program corresponding to a timed medication schedule for the patient; a programmable electronic memory in the dispenser for storing the program; means for entering the program into the memory directly from the programmer means; and means in the dispenser acting responsive to the program in the memory for activating the indicating means when the time of day coincides with the time of the medication schedule.
Schollmeyer et al. discloses a pharmacist-programmable medication prompting system including a programmable prompting device that is attached to a medication container to automatically prompt a patient to take medication at prescribed times.
McLaughlin discloses a medicine dispenser for home health care including a container having a lid and a removable compartmentalized tray which can be positioned upon an interior container ledge and held within the container interior immediately beneath the lid when closed. The tray includes a series of apertures dimensioned and positioned on the periphery of the tray to interact with a series of pegs positioned on the ledge. The arrangement permits only a properly encoded tray to be positioned within the container interior. The lid is provided with a plurality of spring-loaded, hinged tray compartment covers aligned directly over corresponding tray compartments which can be selectively opened and shut to expose the contents of any desired tray compartment. The medicine dispenser is further provided with a microprocessor within the container interior which, together with a control button on the lid, controls the operation of an audible and visual alarm, as well as the automatic opening of selected compartment covers.
Cole et al. discloses a medication reminder device including a housing having a compartment for containing a plurality of individual medication units; a cover hinged to the top of the compartment; a latch mechanism mounted on the compartment to lock and unlock the cover; an electric circuit having a timer system within the housing for controlling the latch mechanism, to lock and unlock the cover at adjustable time intervals so the medication units can be removed when needed; and an audible signal emitter in the circuit activated by the timer system at the adjustable time intervals to notify a person when to remove a medication unit from the compartment.
Nothing in the above patents discloses or suggests the present invention. More specifically, nothing in the above prior art discloses or suggests a medicine dispenser including a housing having first compartment means for holding a first medicine dose and for movement between a closed position in which access to the first medicine dose is prevented and an opened position in which access to the first medicine dose is allowed, and having second compartment means for holding a second medicine dose and for movement between a closed position in which access to the second medicine dose is prevented and an opened position in which access to the second medicine dose is allowed; sound means for selectively broadcasting audible descriptions of the first and second medicine doses; first compartment switch means for causing the sound means to broadcast the audible description of the first medicine dose and for allowing the first compartment means to move from the closed position to the opened position; and second compartment switch means for causing the sound means to broadcast the audible description of the second medicine dose and for allowing the second compartment means to move from the closed position to the opened position.